James Buswell

Violinist James Buswell taught at New England Conservatory from 1987 through 2014.

Buswell has performed as a solo violinist with virtually all of the major orchestras in North America, and throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia as well. In this capacity, he has appeared in over one hundred solo works for violin and orchestra.

His regular professional activities also include solo and chamber music recitals, conducting, teaching, lecturing, and writing. In recital, he is noted for adventuresome programming, regularly combining standard masterpieces with works off the beaten path.

Early in his career he was an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach has played a large role in Buswell's life. He narrated and performed in a documentary for the PBS network entitled "The Stations of Bach," and also released a recording of the complete solo sonatas and partitas on the Centaur label.

Buswell is well known for championing new music, including neglected masterpieces from the 20th century. On the Naxos label, he recorded award-winning CDs of the Samuel Barber concerto and the concerti of Walter Piston and received a Grammy nomination for his recording of the Samuel Barber violin concerto. World premiere performances include works by Charles Wuorinen, Donald Erb, Ned Rorem, Leon Kirchner, John Harbison, and Yehudi Wyner.

Recent travels for concerts, masterclasses, and international competition adjudications have taken him to to Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Australia, Spain, Germany, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic.

Buswell's early training was at the Juilliard School where he was a pupil of Ivan Galamian, and he continued his studies at Harvard University where he majored in Renaissance Art.

The Juilliard School, Harvard University. Violin with Paul Stassevitch and Ivan Galamian. Former faculty of Indiana University. Former Artist-in-residence, Gordon College. Recordings on Centaur and Naxos.

Photo by Andrew Hurlbut

2014-11-10

Violin; Chamber Music

IT'S LIKE AN ACT OF MURDER; YOU PLAY WITH INTENT TO COMMIT SOMETHING. DUKE ELLINGTON